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Proposed FCAT changes could dramatically impact school grades

But Duval schools head says proposed higher standards are good in the long run.

Proposed achievement levels for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test would dramatically change school grades in the state, potentially tripling the number of F schools while providing a more gradual increase in difficulty as students matriculate.

The proposal would give Florida the most rigorous state exam in the country, said Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals, who participated in the vetting process for the new proposal.

“We’re going to see a number of school grades go down as a result of this, particularly at elementary and middle,” Pratt-Dannals said. “But I think long term it’s the right decision.”

The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is scored in achievement levels from a low of 1 to a high of 5. The proposal would change the amount of points students need to earn on the FCAT to earn a particular level.

In education circles, these are known as “cut scores.”

Pratt-Dannals said the changes will give clearer measures of students abilities and gradually demand more of students as they are promoted grade to grade as well as help prepare students and teachers for tougher standards that will be in place in 2015 when Florida and several other states begin giving the same exams.

The State Board of Education is meeting in Jacksonville for the first time in six years and on Monday will have a workshop at Florida State College at Jacksonville to discuss the proposed cut scores. The meeting begins at 2 p.m. in the college’s Urban Resource Center at 601 W. State St., Room 103. The state board could make a final decision on the new FCAT measures during its December meeting.

A statewide grade analysis of the 2010-11 FCAT data showed that the number of A and B elementary and middle schools dropped under the proposed achievement levels, while the number of C, D and F schools increased.

The number of D schools would double and F schools would triple going from about 30 to about 90 statewide, based on the 2010-11 FCAT results.

Duval County Public Schools did an analysis to see what percent of its students would be proficient under the proposed cut scores.

Using the 2010-11 FCAT reading results, Duval students in grades three through seven showed drops in the percent of students proficient, eighth grade stayed about the same and ninth and 10th grades saw increases in the percent of students considered proficient.

The big swings would be in third and 10th grade reading. In third grade, proficiency in reading drops from 69 percent to 55 percent under the proposed measure, in 10th grade it jumps from 34 percent proficient in reading to 49 percent.

Pratt-Dannals said part of the district’s task will be to explain to the public how this year’s school grades won’t necessarily reflect actual changes in students performance.

“It will still be a tough sell,” he said.

Just because a school’s grade drops or increases this year won’t necessarily mean student performance in that school changed, it’s just that the ruler used to measure that performance has changed.

“It’s going to be a communication and marketing issue we’re starting to think about now,” Pratt-Dannals said. “It will be a statewide issue.”

Commissioner Gerard Robinson’s proposed cut scores would require elementary students to earn more points on the FCAT in order to be score at proficient levels, while high school students could score fewer points to be proficient.

Robinson said in a statement that he believes Florida’s students and teachers are up to the task presented by the new cut scores.

Florida educators have long said that the FCAT was too easy at the elementary level and too difficult at the high school level. Robinson’s proposal would correct the imbalance educators have complained about.

The proposed “cut scores” went through a long vetting and discussion process, which included teachers, superintendents, parents and business leaders.

topher.sanders@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4169

First Coast FCAT Scores

Use the search below to see how your area school performed. You may enter full or partial school names in schools field. 2011-12 scores are available for elementary and middle schools.